The Government is proposing amendments to the Shipping and Port Control Ordinance to strengthen existing legislation to further protect the safety of marine workers.
The Shipping and Port Control (Amendment) Bill, to be gazetted on Friday (March 19), will seek to improve the safety protection of workers engaged in various marine work activities and extend the marine work activities covered by the Ordinance to include 'marine construction'.

A spokesman for the Marine Department today (Wednesday) said that the growth in container handling and marine construction activities in recent years, and the adoption of practices to accelerate the container transfer process, have given rise to potential new hazards.

Accident figures indicate that the number of cargo handling accidents has increased from 1,163 during 1992-94 to 1,385 during 1995-97, with over 20 fatal cases in each of these periods.

Over the same periods, the number of accidents in marine construction remains in excess of 150, while the number of fatal cases, although still relatively low, has doubled from two to four.

"In order to keep the accident figures to a minimum, it is considered necessary to strengthen the relevant legislation to further protect the safety of workers," the spokesman said.

"The Bill, which empowers the Director of Marine to issue codes of practice and to approve qualified trainers on work safety, will also enable regulations to be made for the control of works, including marine construction work, as well as the safety and protection of persons employed in works," he said.

He added that the penalty charges for offences would also be increased.

The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council on March 31.

Wednesday, 17 March 1999